Armstrong takes tumble, is shaken up but pedals on

Defending champ, others criticize narrow finish

Tour De France

ANGERS, France - A massive crash near the finish of Stage 6 caused a big scare but few casualties yesterday in what quickly is becoming the Tour de Ambulance.

As the 122-mile Tour de France course abruptly narrowed just under the arch with the red flag that tells riders they have 1 kilometer to go, two riders, Australia's Robbie McEwen and Austria's Rene Haselbacher, tangled and ignited a huge chain reaction. The first group of riders behind the duo crashed hard, and others piled up accordion-style behind them until the last came to standing stops on their bikes.

Texan Lance Armstrong, trying for a record sixth straight Tour title, and rival Jan Ullrich were among about 30 riders who avoided the smashup, the Associated Press reported.

But in a scenario similar to last year's crash in Stage 1, several team leaders were caught up in the wreck despite being near the front of the peloton, the place conventional cycling wisdom says is the safest.

"Coming in, they have the barriers really tight, and you have 200 guys raging through there at 40 mph," Armstrong said. "I don't know what ... they're thinking. You're going to have crashes."

Armstrong had banged a hip and arm in another crash, early in the stage.

Others who went down near the finish included American Tyler Hamilton, who had a frightening flashback to a year ago this week, when he suffered a broken collarbone on the Tour's second day.

This time, he tumbled over the handlebars, scraped his back and cracked his helmet. In recorded comments on the Phonak team Web site, Hamilton called the day "frustrating,"

"I think we deserve better finishes than that," he said.

Every rider was given the same finishing time under the Tour's long-standing rule governing crashes in the final kilometer, so the standings remained the same as the previous day.

That gave riders such as Hamilton chances to collect their wits, dust themselves off and roll slowly across the finish line without worrying about the seconds ticking away. U.S. Postal's George Hincapie escorted Armstrong. Another rider held a teammate's torn shorts together for modesty's sake.

Haselbacher, who rides for the German Gerolsteiner team, fractured three ribs and broke his nose.

Belgium's Tom Boonen won his first Tour de France stage, and young French hope Thomas Voeckler retained the overall lead.

The Chicago Tribune is a Tribune Publishing newspaper. The Associated Press contributed to this article.